I am often amazed and annoyed at new gadgets, at new ideas, and when meeting new people. Amazed at how wonderful the new 'thing' is and annoyed that my brain had told me to immediately ignore it.
I often dismiss new inventions because my brain tells me that 1) I don't need it, 2) Hasn't it been done before, 3) It won't work, and 4) Don't complicate your life more than you should. The same goes for new ideas, "There are no new ideas just new ways of going things" my brain says.
New people really scare my brain. "What do they want", "They don't care about you", "Keep away from them because they will just hurt you". If they have an accent, dress unusually, or look a bit different then my brain shouts, "Look out!"
A lot of that comes from my upbringing. A sheltered life, middle class, military family, living in small communities. Then I became a tradesman, the community was now even smaller. Being a cop didn't help, I met lots of people but they were always hurting someone.
Now that I am out in the wide world working across diverse organisations full of diverse ideas with diverse people, my brain is silent. I am unsure if it is overwhelmed, still catching up, or simply letting me do the thinking for myself. I hope it is the latter.
I now love looking at new gadgets, reading about new ideas, and meeting new people. I am more relaxed, I am full of intrigue, and I am in control of my brain. It's a wonderful world that we live in if we just open our mind and ignore what our brain tells us when we come across new things.
Not everything in the world is there to hurt us, we must ensure that if it does then we learn from the experience and move on. Life is too short to walk around with a closed mind.